BCcampus is part of a consortium of Pacific Northwest higher education organizations on the receiving end of a $749,994 grant from the Next Generation Learning Challenges (NGLC) – http://nextgenlearning.org/the-grants/wave-I-winners#36 an initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

The winning proposal was based on online science courses and Remote Web-Based Science Lab, a BCcampus Online Program Development Fund initiative, which gained the attention of higher education organizations in the United States. With this grant, the B.C.-developed online science labs will be adapted for use at colleges and universities in the U.S.

Through the BCcampus Online Program Development Fund (OPDF), a consortia of BC post-secondary institutions developed online science courses for biology, chemistry and physics and a Remote Web-Based Science Lab for online delivery of the lab portion of those courses using remote scientific instrumentation controlled by students over the web. The resources coming out of this development are licensed for sharing and reuse as open educational resources through Creative Commons licenses.

The application for a grant to create a North American Network of Science Labs Online (NANSLO) was selected as one of the 50 finalists (out of 600 applicants) to move on to a full proposal. Out of those 50 finalists, the NANSLO proposal has now been selected as one of 29 applicants receiving a grant. The grant award is shared between the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE) as principal investigator and BCcampus and the Colorado Community College System as co-investigators.

BCcampus and partner institutions North Island College and College of the Rockies will play an integral role with WICHE and the 13 institutions in the Colorado State Community College System in enhancing the BC-developed online science courses and adapting them for use at colleges and universities in the US. BCcampus and its B.C. post secondary partners will also help replicate in Colorado the BC-based Remote Web Based Science Lab, currently operating at North Island College, as the second node of a planned North American network of science labs online.

Special kudos to Ron Evans, Albert Balbon and Mike Valmorbida at North Island College and Gina Bennett at College of the Rockies for the vision and implementation of this innovative work. I’m particularly pleased to see this happen as it helps prove out the value proposition of OER and shows the benefits of open licensing. As I said to WICHE –
“We are thrilled to enter into a consortia partnership to improve and scale BC developed OER online science courses and associated Remote Web-based Science Lab into the US. Working together collaboratively will enhance and sustain the development and delivery of deeply engaging online science courses while at the same time producing a best-of-breed OER that others can adopt and localize.”

NANSLO’s disruptive innovation is the consortial development of online science courses for biology, chemistry and physics as Open Educational Resources (OER), and the online delivery of the lab portion of those courses using remote scientific instrumentation controlled by students over the web. Consortial development of OER ensures widespread adoption, and a remote web-based science lab provides an authentic science lab experience.

Looking forward to working with WICHE and CCCS on this. The proposal writing process was very collaborative and established a great foundation for continued teamwork.

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